The story of a funeral

Rutland resident Wendy Wilton, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency in Vermont, posed alongside an ersatz Holstein cow at the 2018 Vermont Farm Show last week. This year’s show included a big job fair.

ESSEX JUNCTION | An unusual funeral.

Have you had your flu shot? You should make arrangements to do so ASAP! No matter where you live be it in Newport or any where in the Kingdom, the Banana Belt of Vermont or along the shores of Lake Champlain. Anywhere! It’s important to know that medicines today will help prevent scenarios described herein!

My Dad, Henry A. Pinsonneault, of Bennington, Vermont passed away on February 15, 2002 at the age of 94; had he lived a little longer he would be 123 years old today! The old timers of Bennington have many experiences locked up inside them and we could learn a lot by talking to them. They are privy to the Bennington Triangle and well, other strange occurrences known to the Bennington area.

Influenza swept the world at about the time of WWI and some historians will tell you that the casualties of the “Flu” rivaled those of WWI. The combined casualties of WWI and the influenza (“Flu” or Spanish Flu) were devastating to the total world population much like the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages.

It was during the time of the Influenza (1918-1919) that Henry, as a young lad, found himself sitting in a pew squished in between his mother and father (Alfred and Alexina) at the Sacred Heart Church on School Street. It was not a regular Sunday Mass; it was a solemn and oft-repeated funeral service for another victim of the Flu.

No one felt safe from the Flu especially at a time when there really wasn’t any effective response from the medical community to combat it.. But, there was Henry sitting very quietly between his parents listening to the parish priest saying Mass in French. Everyone there, it seemed, had a handkerchief to his or her face, a last line of defense from the Flu. Henry not grasping the full importance of the scene thought the parishioners were using the handkerchiefs to protect their nostrils against the harshness of the now burning incense.

The death rate during the Influenza was so high it became critical to bury the victims as soon as possible. Henry knew another then another funeral service would follow the one he was attending. There were no autopsies. When people died they were buried as soon as possible following a funeral service. In many cases there was no time for calling hours. It was a stressful time and a time not wanting to be repeated in the future.

It was during this funeral service that something quite unusual happened. The priest was in the middle of the eulogy when, like a bolt of lightning, the individual, the subject of all the mourning and eloquent words spoken by the priest sat, bolt upright in his casket and very slowly turned his head towards the congregation.

There was a total silence, as if time came to a stand still, followed by the sound of running footsteps and the sight of women swooning and fainting. Meanwhile, the priest stood motionless and shocked while the man in the in question quietly reclined to his casket-bed. “It was the most exciting funeral that a kid could go to.” my father remembered. And disappointedly added: “Yup, we’ll never see that again!” The man was revived and taken home. Perhaps you know of this person.

People wondered how and why so many lives were needlessly lost to the Influenza when, in fact, they may have been buried alive while in a coma induced state caused by the Flu. We are extremely fortunate to have a vaccine today to ward-off another pandemic such as the ones our grand and great grandparents experienced.

Today, it seems, we have come full cycle. The flu has returned with a vengeance as witnessed by hospitals around the country and a mounting death toll. It’s never to late to get your flu shot and take all steps necessary to stay healthy and out of harms way. Me? I have had my flu shot and I am not above learning from my granddad by taking another shot of something else!

From: Je me rappelle quand…I remember when… a series of stories of people and events and places in Bennington and outlying areas.